Mr Cameron has tried to heal the breach with his supporters - but they might
not believe him

With the latest poll putting Ukip just two percentage points behind the Tories, there was an added poignancy to the release last night of David Cameron’s anguished message to his party. He sought – like so many people enduring marital turbulence – to remind members of the length of their relationship, of the memories that they shared. “We’ve pounded pavements together, canvassed together and sat in make-shift campaign headquarters together, from village halls to front rooms,” he wrote. “We have been together through good times and bad. This is more than a working relationship; it is a deep and lasting friendship… That’s why I am proud to lead this party. I am proud of what you do. And I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise.”

The trouble is, all too many of the party’s members will find this hard to believe. Take the campaign for gay marriage. The goal was to rebrand the Conservative Party as more tolerant and more in touch with popular sentiment – but it prompted an ugly battle with the party’s grassroots, who took against the move. The subsequent revolt of the backbenches has amplified rather than dampened the image of Tory traditionalism, undermining the political purpose of the plan, while the insensitive way in which the Prime Minister tried to confront his party’s social conservatives fuelled that impression that he is part of a privileged clique that looks upon ordinary members as “swivel-eyed loons”. Perhaps Mr Cameron wanted his own Clause 4 moment. But the fight that he picked did not strengthen his leadership: it has fractured the British Right, driving many Tories into Ukip’s arms.

Wherever one stands on gay marriage, this was bad politics – and it was only one in a series of errors. Last week, 116 Tory MPs backed an amendment regretting that the Queen’s Speech did not contain legislation for a referendum on membership of the EU. The situation is alarmingly reminiscent of the mid-1990s, when John Major struggled to hold his party together. The result then was that the government failed to win credit for its handling of the economy and was instead judged by the voters on its chaotic internal politics. Likewise, today’s Conservatives run the risk of failing to gain plaudits for their genuine achievements in the fields of welfare and education reform because the headlines are dominated by bitter infighting.

In this light, Mr Cameron’s initiative yesterday represents a welcome – if belated – attempt to heal the breach between him and his supporters. Whether those on the Right will be mollified remains to be seen, but at least the Prime Minister has started to focus on uniting his party, rather than dividing it.